8pm Friday VERA – Crime Drama
DCI Vera Stanhope and her team face a series of captivating murder mysteries set against the breathtaking Northumberland landscape.
THE SEAGULL
When a prison inmate and former police officer John Brace says he's willing to give up information about a long-dead wheeler-dealer in return for protection for his family, Vera knows she has to look into his claims.
Vera must find the connection between a skeleton discovered underneath the site of a notorious burnt-out nightclub and a present day murder.
Vera opens up a cold case when a skeleton is discovered buried in Whitley Bay. Robbie Marshburn was a notorious criminal who went missing over 20 years ago never to be seen again. But this isn't a typical case for Vera as Robbie, and those connected to him, were friends of her father. And to make matters worse, Robbie's remains are found underneath the burnt-out site of the infamous nightclub where they all used to meet. As Robbie's remains are identified, the team comes across another murder nearby. Vera investigates the possibility of the victim's connections to a local crime family and whether this led to the brutal killing. Elaine and Leonard Sidden ran The Seagull in its heyday and Vera learns that they haven't quite severed ties with the past as their son Alec is now developing the site where the burnt-out nightclub stands. In a case that's often too close to home, Vera must uncover a web of secrets and corruption to understand the circumstances that led to both murders.
9:30pm AGATHA AND THE CURSE OF ISHTAR Crime Drama
Travel to the deserts of Iraq for an archaeological dig, where the famous crime writer unravels a series of mysterious murders.
In the winter of 1928, bruised from her divorce and struggling with fame and success, Agatha Christie travels to Iraq and is caught in a web of murder, intrigue and love. It has been two years since the sensation caused by her 11-day disappearance and Agatha arrives in Baghdad seeking culture and peace. What she finds is Max: an attractive young archaeologist with a bullet wound.
Thrown into the decadent heart of the ex-pat community, jealous colleagues besiege Agatha; corrupt officials, antiquity smugglers and a local population furious at the theft of their cultural heritage. As the body count rises and Agatha finds herself falling in love with Max, it becomes apparent that the key to this mystery lies outside the walls of the colonial lodge: there is a force at work that has no concern for history or humanity, but it has met his match in Agatha.
